Articles in the Chinese GP Category

A masterful victory from Fernando Alonso kept him out of the strategic battles going on behind and, at points in the race, around him. Taking the projected approach to the race of a three-stopper after starting on the soft tyre compound, the Ferrari driver took control of the race after coming out ahead of pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton in the first round of pit stops.

What was that about tyre degradation? Mercedes defied expectations by dominating the Chinese Grand Prix and providing Rosberg junior with his first Grand Prix victory – the first for the Mercedes’ works team since Fangio dominated the 1955 season. Behind him, Sebastian Vettel slipped from second to fifth in the closing laps as Jenson Button took second and Lewis Hamilton completed the podium for the third race in a row.

Drivers are shown according to their final race classification with lap zero showing the tyre type each driver started the race on. I’m sure you can pick out some interesting patterns amongst the data but here are a few points I’ve noted; Alonso ran on used tyres for every stint of the race, Webber ran the fewest laps of any driver on the soft compound and Raikkonen ran an amazing 29 laps on used medium tyres. Could he have avoided losing so many places if his tyres had not had …

Nico Rosberg flew to his, and the modern incarnation of Mercedes’, first ever pole in Shanghai with a blistering 1 minute 35.121s. Lewis Hamilton went second fastest, half a second adrift although he aborted his final run on fresh tyres after it was clear he wouldn’t improve his position…

Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher went quickest on the first day of practice with a best time of 1 minute 35.973s but Lewis Hamilton, quickest in the damp first session, wasn’t far behind for McLaren and looked like he would beat it until he lost time in the final sector. Team mate Jenson Button, however, was left complaining of “way too much understeer” to his race engineer…

The beautiful Shanghai International Circuit plays host to this weekend’s Grands Prix; always an exciting circuit in the wet, last year’s event showed it can be entertaining in the dry too. Since there have only been eight previous races you don’t have to look too far back in your memory for answers to the following 10 questions… how many of these events do you remember?